Reading, listening to, and questioning America... from the southern Great Plains

The GOP is one big, angry fight

They're setting out to fight Obama even as their own rear guard attacks. No surprise that the leading opponent of Democrats is an addled, moronic, bitter, white-haired senator with a long record of unseemly outbursts. The rest of his party are furious and wounded. Turning inward, they are busy attacking each other. A few, like "bomber" John McCain, are left punching the air in the hope of smashing Obama.

It should be more of a pleasure to watch.

The conservative backlash sets up an internal fight for the direction of
the Republican Party, as many top leaders in Washington have proposed
moderating their views on citizenship for illegal immigrants, to appeal
to Latino voters. In addition, many top GOP officials have called for
softening the party’s rhetoric on social issues, following the
embarrassing showing by Senate candidates who were routed after publicly
musing about denying abortion services to women who had been raped. ...WaPo

As for 2014, there's no one more dangerous to the rest of us than someone who loathes himself.

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There is a hesitant but perceptible move on the part of Republican leadership against Grover Norquist and his crazy "pledge." Boehner, Bill Kristol, and others have been talking about... get this... raising taxes! Norquist senses big trouble.

Just a few months ago, he predicted to me with confidence that his
goals of the past quarter-century were about to be realized: Mitt Romney
would win the presidency, Republicans would seize the Senate, and the
unified Republican government would quickly pass Paul Ryan’s budget,
including a complete reworking of entitlement programs.

But
instead of laying siege to Washington, he is now leading a rear-guard
action to prevent defections. His defense of the Pledge seems to be a
mixture of improbable optimism (he maintained that Republicans are “much
closer” to smaller government than before) and implied threats
(“Republicans who raise taxes do their own brand a great deal of damage,
particularly if they put in writing to their constituents that’s not
who they are or what they do”). ...

Maybe Norquist would soften a little? Maybe. Maybe not.

Norquist assured me that there was no change, that there would be no tax increase of any sort and that he had not gone squishy.